@NotCrunchyTaco Be very wary of tackling football AI... at its most complex level, it's probably one of the most difficult AI strategies to deal with... I've worked on a couple of football games (in an art role) and started designing one many years ago.

However, there are some simpler solutions that might work, one of which was used in Anco's Player Manager, which was a progression of the Kick Off series.

The way it works, is you cut the pitch up into zones. When the ball is any zone, the players have a fixed position to run to as part of their strategy. As they are running to their positions, any player that ends up nearest the ball becomes the ball chaser, until the ball is closer to another player. At that point the first ball chaser goes back to heading for their set position and the new ball chaser takes over.

This would be Kick Off.

This would be with Red attacking and the ball in Blue's penalty area.

That is an absolute base-line strategy that does nothing but run to positions and even just that aspect of it can get quite involved... that's before you've even begun to think about defending, tackling, passing and saving... then there are the rules of the game.

My suggestion would be to develop some football related skill games. Place markers at different heights/positions in the goal and get the player to try and hit them. Kick balls into rings on the ground a set distance away. If you are going to add AI, then go with penalty kicks where you can be the kicker and the goalie.

If you've never tackled sports AI before, football strategy will overwhelm you with complexity.

But this is just my advice and if you're brave enough to take it on, good luck.

@LeeC2202 Why do I think of an old billiards game from an old Windows computer when I see this? It was called Real Pool or some shit. I can't remember the game but the game you brought up made me think of that pool game.

@LeeC2202 Soccer AI looks really complex. Now that I think about it rules of the game, tackling, penalties, running, etc.....
But thank you. It is also interesting how you helped work on some soccer games.